Re: Administrator and Adminisrators

Malke wrote:
Iwashi wrote:

I have heard that some drivers can only be installed by local
adminisrator account not an account belonging to administrators group.
Is this true?

No, it isn't true. In Windows XP all computer administrators have equal
powers.

Malke


In theory, you're correct. But I've found this not to always be the case, in practice. I've encountered a very small sampling of installation routines that had actually been written so that they would work *only* when run from the built-in Administrator account, and then only if the account hadn't been renamed, as is a common security practice.

I could not install these applications using a domain administrative account, nor using the renamed built-in administrator account. I actually had to disconnect the machine from the domain (as a security precaution) and rename the built-in administrator account to "Administrator" before the installation routine would work. Stupidest thing I've ever encountered; but some developers simply have no concept of multiple user accounts and/or proper security.

Of course, this condition is a limitation of those specific, poorly written applications, not the operating system. When installation routines are properly written, there is no functional difference between the built-in Administrator account and any other accounts that are members of the local Administrators group.


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